Ten Truths for Making Change Productive

Throughout my career — being a chief financial officer in companies large and small, being a corporate and nonprofit board member, now as CEO of a fast-growing privately held startup — I’ve learned to become change agent. It’s a badge I wear proudly, and something that has taught me about what works and what doesn’t when managing change.


Every change initiative is unique, though the truths about creating change succeed are, in general, exactly the same. Here I’ve collected 10 truths about change management. Think about them like tools within a toolbox — you’ll want them readily available, you need to know how to use them so you need to determine the best time to pull them out and place results. That’s the change agent’s primary job.

1. Change is around people.
I lead a software program company that provides a game-changing connected planning platform. And even though I have faith that technology can help our organizations grow, evolve and improve, change management is ultimately about people. As leaders, we need to set the instance from the change we would like from the people around us. Since the great NBA coach Phil Jackson said, “You can’t force your may on people. If you want them to act differently, you need to inspire them to change themselves.” Only if you help individuals change could you aspire to change a company.

Related: 5 Principles for Dealing With Constant Change

2. Make an effort.
Some changes are quick, but real, transformational change can — and sometimes must — take years. We’re all amazed with how quick things alteration of Silicon Valley, along with the capacity to react fast might be important survival. But, changing hearts, minds and ultimately culture (see No. 1) often can’t be performed using the snap of your fingers.

3. Create a vision.
Stake out in which you require a transformation to take you early in Change Management Books Online. Determine what success appears to be. That doesn’t mean all things have to be fully baked from Day One. In reality, stay away from doing that — as it means you haven’t engaged the people who you ought to get fully briefed together with you. And don’t be rigid, because that will impede of success. (On that within a bit.)

Related: 5 Ways CEOs Can Empower Teams to build up Collaborative Workplaces

4. Engage your stakeholders.
That is central to selling the vision you established. Find out the people who will likely be impacted by the change, and acquire them involved and purchased the work and its particular success.

5. Acknowledge tradeoffs.
When we are inspired to change, be aware of the consequences. Think of it like pulling the loose thread on a shirt — sometimes it may cause some control to leave. If you add resources — dollars, people, space or anything else — to at least one project, attempt to understand what might take a back seat. And time is the ultimate finite resource, if you decide to ask a superstar who’s already working at ability to do something extra, realize that her productivity in their own “day job” might need to be shifted.

6. Use the willing.
Not everybody in your organization will probably jump in the change train. That’s natural; some individuals may have strategies to thinking and working that are incompatible in what you need to accomplish. So, while it’s probably the least fun part of change management, sometimes you need to make new people who share up your eyes, and released people who don’t. I don’t need to explain how staff changes are costly, though the costs of misalignment and wasted time on resisters are very much greater.
7. Overcommunicate — and after that communicate even more.
I’ve used every medium you can imagine to speak about change. Town halls, emails, newsletters, intranet sites, videoconferencing, collaboration tools — they all have a place. Occasionally, it’s appropriate to speak about internal change with others outside your organization, even perhaps the general public. For example, each of us were transforming Cisco’s finance department from your number-crunching machine into a strategic business partner, we published a Q&A within the Wall Street Journal around the project. People mixed up in effort shared the piece around, and took greater pride within the work — and a few people we hadn’t managed to reach by other methods finally understood what we were looking to do.

8. Listen.
The communication I merely described can’t certainly be a one-way street. You need to pay attention to the people who are making the change, and pay attention to the people impacted by the change. That doesn’t mean you value all feedback equally, or give the those who are complaining more hours. But look hard for the useful nuggets with what people show you, and plow it in your plans. In ways, here is the extended sort of engaging your stakeholders (No. 4).

9. Empower the silent majority to speak up.
If you listen (No. 8), you’re prone to hear a number of voices the loudest. Be aware that they’re not necessarily speaking for some people. So, give the silent majority a number of solutions to make their voices heard: Anonymous polls and surveys can help, but may you need to train and persuade folks to speak up. From the one situation by which someone posted an extremely negative, scathing comment with regards to a project really public forum. Instead of engage within this public platform, a basic but valued member of my team emailed him directly and very respectfully invited him to chat — one on one, directly — about his concerns and helped focus on a fix. He or she immediately backed down, and my team member then asked him to take back his comment on exactly the same public forum. He did.

Related: Why Problem Solvers, Not Whiner, Always Win operational

10. Learn as you go along.
Challenges will arise as organizations change; the failure or success of your change management effort relies upon how we reply to those challenges. For example, because finance team at Cisco became strategic business advisors (rather than simply back-office human calculators — see No. 7), some individuals found themselves in unfamiliar territory. These folks were brilliant accountants, but had gaps in their business knowledge. We addressed this by creating new learning opportunities and career development paths for those in finance. The identical can be done in almost any part of your organization.

When i noted earlier, not all of these truths apply to every situation. And admittedly, none of those things is especially novel, but that doesn’t mean they’re hard to overlook. The company landscape is full of change management projects that failed for reasons that are, in retrospect, painfully obvious.

But, most of these truths is nuanced, and success lies in their application. The wisdom of change management is to know which tool to use, so when for doing things. And that’s where leadership comes in.
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